Twitch Continues Growth with Over 355 Billion Minutes Watches in 2017

Twitch Continues Growth with Over 355 Billion Minutes Watches in 2017

Twitch is one of the leading live-streaming platforms in the world. The Amazon-owned site recently released its list of insights for the year, presented in real Twitch style in the form of a digital comic. The statistics show that 2017 was a winner for the site, which saw growth in the number of minutes watched, as well as the number of broadcasters, affiliates and partnered streamers. The world went Twitch mad in 2017!

For those who are unfamiliar with Twitch, the site has become something of a hub for streaming and watching videos, tutorials and entertainment. Although the platform continues to diversify, with everything from NBA League games to talk shows live streamed, most of the content is created by gamers — from poker players in million-dollar pots to Battleground players in huge online tournaments. The most popular games in 2017 were Battlegrounds, Fortnite, Destiny 2 and FIFA 18.

According to the Twitch report, 355 billion minutes of video were watched on the platform, a growth of 22 percent in 2017 and 85 percent more than in 2014. The platform also saw a massive 15 million unique daily visitors to the site.

Twitch now has 27K+ Partners and 150K+ Affiliates

Just as important as the viewers to Twitch’s success, if not more so, are the people creating and streaming the content for the viewers. They form the backbone of the Twitch community. The number of unique monthly broadcasters on Twitch rose to 2 million in 2017, a 33 percent increase from 1.5 million in 2014.

It is in the company’s best interest to keep their broadcasters happy, and so Twitch offers affiliate and partner programs, which allow regular streamers to make money broadcasting to their audience. For some people, streaming is not just a bit of fun, but also a paid hobby or even a profession.

Before 2017, becoming a partnered streamer was the only way to make money from Twitch, but the company now allows a lot more people to monetize their videos and channels by becoming affiliate streamers. Broadcasters only need a minimum of 50 followers and eight hours of streaming in the month before applying to become affiliates and start making money for views and subscriptions. Over 150,000 people were affiliate streamers on Twitch in 2017.

Becoming a partnered streamer is much more difficult than becoming an affiliate, and though there are no set guidelines, broadcasters must put out content at least three times a week to an “established and growing audience” to make it to the Twitch elite. Yet the number of partnered streamers on Twitch in 2017 has roughly doubled since 2015, with 27,000 people enjoying the benefits and subscription revenue that the scheme offers.

The popularity of Twitch could be due to several factors. Common among broadcasting e-Sports events and gaming tournaments, Twitch is becoming immensely popular worldwide. The usage of the Twitch platform for streaming music, sports and other entertainment is increasing, too. Twitch attributes much of their success down to their growing community, with events like TwitchCon leading the way. Whatever the case, the statistics show that Twitch is taking center stage as the number one streaming platform in the world, especially for gaming.